Dungeons & Dragons Online & why it's a truly brave MMORPG in 2023

#ddo #dnd #dungeonsanddragons #dungeonsanddragonsonline #mmorpg #mmo
Here's why I think ‪@dungeonsanddragonsonline‬ is the bravest MMORPG ever made. 💖
#ddo #dnd #dungeonsanddragons
Enjoy coverage of this MMORPG in 2023.
Channel's videos/sources mentioned in this video:
🌟‪@Narc‬ :: • Where Did it Go Wrong?...
🌟‪@SuperBitsandBob‬ :: • Dungeons and Dragons O...
🌟‪@MassivelyOP‬ :: massivelyop.com/2022/02/28/du...
🌟‪@Strimtom‬ :: • What are the differenc...
🌟‪@GGRELOADED‬ :: • Video
🌟‪@TheLazyPeon‬ :: • Dungeons & Dragons Onl...

[@MarleMMO]

EDIT: I am wrong about DDO's monetization; it is in fact similar to LOTRO in that you can earn premium currency via completing quests. Plus, the item shop tutorial /does/ give you the points needed to complete it. Question! ⚡ What do you think about Dungeons & Dragons Online? Let us know. 👇 The links to DDO are below. 👉 🌟 Website: www.ddo.com/home 🌟 DDO's Discord: discord.gg/ddo 🌟 Steam: store.steampowered.com/app/206480/Dungeons__Dragons_Online NOTE: Please read JLucaa's comment below for corrections/objections to points I made in the video. 💖

[@nighthiker]

Hey, Marle... While I appreciate the correction, I think this comment should be pinned, as I only got to it after browsing thru dozens of others. I'll add more notes and my thoughts on a separate comment.

[@MarleMMO]

My apologies - I thought it was. Thank you for the catch! 🥰

[@evilemperor5325]

DDO has a well-developed predatory monetization scheme that is centered around bilking whales. SSG (formerly Turbine) has a bad habit of putting a lot of Pay2Progress items into the cash shop and tuning content around having used a large majority of those items or having characters with 5-10 of focused play behind them. If you do not have / want to spend a lot of cash on the cash shop, it will take a long time come up to speed with the median range of the focused players. Many of the more casual players tend to get sidelined by large chunks of the player base.

[@MarleMMO]

I do wish they'd revamp their monetization. 🥰

[@evilemperor5325]

@@MarleMMO As long as they have the whales that keep paying, they'll never changes. I've run with people who spend multiple hundreds of dollars a month on DDO Points for the cash shop. That is not just 1 or 2 people. I've talked to a couple dozen who admit to spending like that. One or them claimed to spend over a thousand a month on the cash shop if it was averaged out. He used Otto's boxes all the time, and said he would drop $4000 to $5000 at a clip when they were available.

[@CharlesLeCharles]

A couple things,. There's no double tutorial, the whole korthos island story arc is a tutorial. The quest that teaches you how to use the item shop without giving you any currency it actually does. Each quest gives an amount of favor, wich gives said currency. This is from the wiki: "For each server you will earn 50 bonus DP for reaching 5 Favor" The item you buy in the store is worth 5 points, but when traded to the npc to complete the quest you get an item that's worth 195 points (a resurrection cake). Combat gets better as you level up and the harder difficulty you choose. Running a quest on normal difficulty unlocks hard and running it again on hard unlocks elite. While you can have 20 hotbats at once on the screen why would you do that? Why would you have abilities on your hotbars that you don't need? Seems more like a problem you created, not the game. If you don't use something drag it out of the horbar.

[@MarleMMO]

Thank you for your thoughts Charles! Another user responded in kind and I appreciate the clarification. 💖

[@EviIM0nk3y]

its hotbar

[@vecnagreyhawk78]

The amount of hours i’ve put into this game since 2008 could have gotten me a Master’s degree in reality. So worth it though😂

[@MarleMMO]

I'm so glad DDO has been a MMO home for you! ❤️

[@Alcedess]

They provided you a mace because there were skeletons ahead and they wanted to be sure you had a means to bypass their damage reduction. They do simple things like this once in a while in earlier quests.

[@MarleMMO]

Yes, as I mentioned, it was provided as a tool to teach about damage types. 💖

[@taleladar]

@@MarleMMO Yet in the video you first said, "this only makes sense if you had no weapon" .. Yes, soon after you did say it teaches about damage types, and in fact, the DM narrating the dungeon literally explains this as well. So that may as well have just been trimmed from your video, seeing as the reasoning for providing these weapons were quite clear. I really don't know what this "Darklock's Second Law" has to do with anything though. It seems more related to the idea of cheating in gaming communities. The only word here with any relevance is "assumption". You assumed there would be some fantastic prize in the chest, and you were wrong. But if you think about it, you barely did anything in that dungeon to get to that point. Why do you think you would or should be awarded some item upgrade for progressing 30 seconds into a dungeon and killing two enemies? At the end of the day, sure, maybe your expectations were still violated. Maybe you thought the tutorial would keep handing out upgrade after upgrade in quick succession. But just because you assumed something incorrectly, that doesn't mean the game was designed badly. Sometimes people just jump to wrong conclusions, for right or wrong reasons. Regardless, I feel there is no harm, no foul here. While you still do bring up a lot of valid points, this one particular topic I'd have to hard disagree on.

[@MarleMMO]

@@taleladar, thank you for sharing in more detail. Yes, in isolated context, the progression in the crypt dungeon is perfectly acceptable. In fact, by itself, it does a great job introducing players to many of the types of mechanics that DDO implements reasonably well. However, in view of the entire tutorial experience, the damage type introduction does not flow well with what the player learned & experienced earlier. Is this a minor point? Perhaps so, and maybe it is isolated to the newbie experience. However, since new players make very quick judgments about whether or not to continue playing a game, they often (accurate or not) extrapolate -- in this case, if the progression is misaligned in terms of loot, does that imply that the progression of loot in terms of acquisition will be difficult to predict? Again -- it's impossible to know at this point, yet these (subconscious) thoughts are present to new players and a point to which I tried to articulate. With that said, I could have done better to draw attention to your perspective -- in MMOs, especially older 'classic' titles, expectation breaking is part of the experience. The issue is whether it is handled in a way that functions as fun or frustrating. In this case seemed to have been benign. Thank you for the thoughtful dialogue! 💖

[@taleladar]

@@MarleMMO "However, in view of the entire tutorial experience, the damage type introduction does not flow well with what the player learned & experienced earlier." I'm not sure what you mean? The player would not have fought skeletons or zombies before. They would have faced very few enemies (some sahuagin and a couple cultists), none of which had damage resistance. But.. eventually the mechanic has to be introduced somehow, all while balancing story, gameplay, pacing, progression... Even when I played DDO for the first time many years ago, I had never felt slighted by a rusty longsword in a chest I did little to earn. I may have used it as recommended. I may have tossed it. It just seems entirely inconsequential. I guess that brings me to ask: how would you introduce the mechanic of slashing/bludgeoning weapons against undead types, without a gameplay experience that seems boring, frustrating, unfair, or confusing? All while keeping the current pace and progressing the story?

[@MarleMMO]

@@taleladar, thank you for your reply. In context to DDO's structure, I would have provided an equivalent to the fire enhanced weapon earned at the end of the first tutorial quest. This keeps the pacing of itemization while teaching about damage types (instead of moving one step back then moving adjacent). This reduces cognitive load. Again, this stance is admittedly nit-picky, yet something worth considering. 💖

[@Wanfanel]

16:53 after first reincarnation(you back to level 1 with extra feat and stats 34-point build ) you unlock hard for all quests and second reincarnation( 36-point build ) you unlock elite and reaper for whole server on that character. You can join other parties doing your quest on elite or reaper or make party with description like "Elite when get opener". My friend is f2p and doing well

[@MarleMMO]

Glad to hear! 🥰

[@andrews3156]

It is a testament to DDO that so many other games have aspects that look like DDO. When he says the inventory screen resembles Baldur's gate. Baldur's gate is the one that resembles DDO. And one of the best things is since you can unlock content it will be there is you put it down and come back to it later for free. No need to pay a subscription it go back and play later on.

[@MarleMMO]

I do like how content does stay open, yes. 💖

[@brianstevens3858]

You also get loot from barrels, not just chests, and while the normal drop is low, some of the very best of my equipment dropped from barrels/box/crates. also there are many in game ways to buy the equipment you want, especially if you participate in the festivals and special events. Even the most abject ftp can gain quality loot.

[@MarleMMO]

Thank you for the corrections Brian! It was not obvious this was the case; I appreciate the clarifications. 💖

[@anungunrama7646]

DDO has been my main game since 2010. Two points I want to make - each character does get a free respec. Breaking a build can happen, but a lot of it is fixable. About the crafting - as you play you will find crafting ingredients in quests. It's a pretty robust system which I use all the time. It can be a grind to get a specific ingredient, but the ddowiki is a great resource for trying to locate crafting materials. There's a lot of flexibility in the system. Bonus point - the reincarnation system makes the game very rewarding and replayable if you stick to one character and don't go alt-aholic.

[@MarleMMO]

Thank you for sharing! Do you mind explaining the crafting system in more detail? 🥰

[@jrvthatsme]

@@MarleMMO I'll attempt to explain the cannith crafting system. You don't need to buy anything from the DDO store to use it. There is a merchant/vender in the cannith crafting hall that sells Dust of Disjuction and Dissolvers, and the system allows you to give items custom enchentments of your own choosing. Dust of Disjuction can be used on any regular random magic item (not special items with a specific name) or unmagical item. It clears away any magic properties the item has and makes it prepared to be infused with enchantments (known as shards) you create with cannith essence and collectable items you find in quest. Dissolvers let you break down random magical items into cannith essence. Your crafting skill (press c on your keyboard and select the crafting tab to see it. This is increased by getting crafting experience from crafting in the cannith crafting system) determines what enchantments you can create and how powerful they can be. It currently goes as high as level 320. To enchant (imbue with magical properties) a prepared item (via dust of disjunction) first you create a minimum level shard (levels range from level 1 to level 32 and if you imbue a level higher than your character level, you will not be able to use that item until your character reaches the same level.) This will determine how powerful the effects of the other shards you imbue into the item will be, and also sets the enchantment bonus on weapons, armour and shields. Items can normally be imbued with 2 magical properties (A prefix and a suffix), but when creating an items of level 10 or over there is a means of imbuing it with a 3rd property. So let's say you are playing a level 9 character and want to create a scimitar (since you are a druid) to help you fight demons. You use the various machines in the cannith crafting hall to prepare a scimitar to be imbued. Then you create the minimum level 9 shard, the good effect shard (Making the item holy so demons will be vulnerable to it and it does extra holy damage) and the evil outsider bane shard (which causes extra damage to evil outsiders exclusively. All demons are of the evil outsider type, so bad news for them). The resulting scimitar is a +3 Holy Scimitar of Evil Outsider Bane. It's good aligned (which overcomes the damage resistance of many supernatural evil creatures. Especially evil outsiders) Does an extra 3d6 holy damage to anything it hits that isn't of good alignment, and an additional extra 3d10 damage against any evil outsiders it hits. If you had made a minimum level 32 scimitar these numbers would be +12 Holy(6d6) Scimitar of Evil Outsider Bane(6d10). On the website ddowiki if you select crafting - cannith crafting, there is a link at the bottom of that page called "UL crafting planner" that you can use to take a look at the massive selection of magical properties you can imbue items with.

[@MarleMMO]

@@jrvthatsme, thank you for the elaboration! I appreciate that the system is functional and flexible -- only if it was a bit easier to learn as a newbie. 💖

[@jrvthatsme]

@@MarleMMO Yeah. It's even difficult for people familiar with D&D 3.5 and the Eberron Campaign Setting (On a completely different world than the Forgotten Realms, but you can get to the Forgotten Realms later in the game). There are other crafting methods and systems in DDO, but not in Free to Play content. The last few years (since covid started) there have been a time when they gave away a coupon code (e.g. DDOQUESTS2022) that permanently unlocks all the current at the time adventure packs for free and several expansion packs for only 99 DDO points each. There is speculation that they might do it again this year for the anniversary even (end of this month), or for the release of the new D&D movie (end of next month).

[@MarleMMO]

@@jrvthatsme, yeah, I was one of the lucky ones who used the code! I do hope to dive deeper into DDO at some point in the future as I have read that there are some excellent quests to enjoy. 💖

[@jezlawrence720]

The chest loot system was not put in to support cash shop rerolls - they added those later when the game went free to play. The game was ALWAYS designed with a chest-based system. You do also get loot from smashing breakables.

[@MarleMMO]

Thank you for the insight! 💖

[@jezlawrence720]

@@MarleMMO you're very welcome, no "ddo review" by a newbie is ever perfect and not should it be, your first/early impressions are basically the point. So no shade from me, just some clarifying info - it's a good review ;)

[@MarleMMO]

Your kindness is deeply appreciated! 💖

[@scpredmage]

Both DDO and LotRO were developed by Turbine, so similarities are to be expected, but notably, DDO came first, and went F2P before LotRO, so it's more apt to say LotRO references DDO. Turbine also made Asheron's Call, so the similarities to AC's randomized loot aren't surprising.

[@MarleMMO]

Yes, you're correct (and as others pointed out that any reference to LOTRO is likely the other way around). Please forgive my mistake. 💖

[@kokocaptainqc]

some musics and sound effects are the same too

[@taleladar]

Just a quick note on character customization and choosing builds: many of the classes have some preset "paths" you can choose, which effectively make all the hard choices for you even as you level up. It's great for newbies who just want to play the game and have a decent character, but who would be confused by the myriad of choices otherwise. Yes, there is a ton of customization here, and it can be confusing. But at least there's a few things to mitigate this. Enhancement trees can be reset using in-game platinum. Every character starts with a reincarnation item, effectively allowing you to "start over" and rebuild your character without having to play through everything. Finally, there is a special NPC that will let you swap out feats somewhere in the game. Basically requires you to collect some items which you can find throughout all the dungeons. There's also another little quest you can do to get a free feat swap as well. Yes, I'm being vague, because it's not obvious or intuitive to new players, but if you look up guides or ask around in game, I'm sure you could get the info and help you need, rather than completely starting over. You are very correct about the alignment, however. It seems like an unimportant decision at first (and usually it is) but you are locked out of certain classes without a proper alignment. I do agree, it needs to be better explained in character creation.

[@MarleMMO]

Thank you so much for the added clarification! Great information. 💖

[@st.thomassinner6710]

So happy to see that someone else feels the same way about DDO that I do. I have been playing this game since 2008 or so, and I have to say that nothing comes close to DDO as far as overall game awesomeness. I have taken time away from the game from time to time(coming back from a break of a little over a year as I type this) and the only way I can explain it is no matter how great other games are, and Diablo 2 has always been my favorite, I keep coming back to DDO because it is so good and overall just an amazing game.

[@MarleMMO]

I'm so glad to read about your delight for DDO! D2 is great too. 💖

[@jasons3601]

What a fun comment. I discovered DDO while searching for Diablo 2 mods. It had just gone free to play, and I've enjoyed it on and off since then. It is an amazing game.

[@MarleMMO]

I'm so glad! 🥰

[@skyvolt2566]

While I don't think its the best MMO ever made that title for me goes to SWTOR I do still think DDO is an amazing game. The graphics actually look really good for its age and I think DDO was ahead of its time with all their mechanics and I also find myself playing it on and off a lot. Its one of those games that I don't uninstall bc I know I'll be finding my way back to it eventually lol

[@MarleMMO]

@skyvolt2566 It's a great MMO to return to! 🥰

[@Ollurim]

Very nice video! Always glad to see a review of DDO. There are some things I disagree with, though. First off, you said the difficulties are locked behind a paywall and while that is true, you don't have to replay the quests multiple times to unlock the other difficulties. Reincarnating unlocks one difficulty, first is hard, then elite and reaper. I'd say that's good for new players, experiment and learn on normal difficulty and once you get better then you can have some challenge. Also, redoing your character is easy too. You get a free lesser heart of wood for each character, which you can use to lesser reincarnate, letting you change your feats. Yeah you can't change what class you took but I'd say this is good enough. I do agree with how much the game forces you to pay, that's really annoying. Especially with the adventure packs. The free ones can get you to level 10 I believe, but no more after that. Luckily though, I got a free code to most of the game's adventure packs last year. Hopefully they'll release another this year or next year.

[@MarleMMO]

Thank you for the corrective comments! I was also fortunate to use the free coupon code to access much of the game's content, yet I believe that has generally expired for those unlucky or unaware to use. Thank you for your thoughts TheGloxerTRG! 💖

[@lukedavis3408]

One thing I will also point out as a further addendum to this statement. Free to play players can obtain level 20, with just free to play quests. There is a list of free to play quests on DDO wiki, a quick google search should bring it up. Quests around level 10-14 is where the difficulty spikes significantly and proper build design of your character of a first life can be rather pivitol when soloing. Group's happen often for this reason, and most people are willing to help out new players. As everyone remembers how much of a learning curve the game requires.

[@MarleMMO]

Thank you for the added information! 🥰

[@URMyNewTV]

@@MarleMMO There's a new code active till April 23rd: DUNGEONCRAWL Almost all quest packs for free forever, please put that in your pinned comment! :D

[@MarleMMO]

Thank you for mentioning this opportunity! 🥰

[@john-philipcamp715]

Thanks for the review! Been playing DDO for 13 years now and I still love it.

[@MarleMMO]

Thank you for the kind words! Do you consider DDO your main MMO? 🙂

[@JLucaa]

I appreciate you did a lot more research than some reviewers and I agree with a lot of stuff that's wrong with the game (new player experience, difficulties being gated, etc), but you still got some of it wrong. While the monetization is not great, that quest that asks you to buy a specific quest item from the store DOES give you points to do so. You also get DDO Points from playing the game, 25 for every 100 favor (completing quests grants favor, depending on the difficulty), plus bonus points when reaching certain milestones on each server. The class categorizations are a bit misleading and spellcasters are weaker early game but it's because that's how D&D 3.5 works, spells are weak early game and godly later on. Martial characters mostly progress by getting bigger numbers but casters keep getting new and better spells: you go from trying to land a weak ray spell at first level to clearing rooms with a meteor swarm. Your attacks did little damage because you created a spellcaster, with spellcaster stats. Even if you've only played 5e you shouldn't expect to be a melee monster with no strength. A Barbarian with a two hander can 1 or 2 shot most enemies at those levels with ease. There is a slight attempt to at least pay homage to the combat round with the attack chain, BAB and spell cooldowns (6 seconds for a lvl 9 spell, sounds familiar). While the complaints about the lack of difficulty due to not being able to select higher ones is valid, keep in mind you only played the tutorial island and maybe a few level 2 quests. Hard and Elite difficulties introduce champion monsters and Reaper difficulty introduces, well... reapers and lets you scale the difficulty to the stratosphere. This is why I wouldn't recommend someone play unless they have VIP to be able to open quests on Elite, F2P feels more like a taste of the game rather than the real thing. Personal opinion: I'm glad the loot is only given through chests, usually at the end of the quest and/or NPC rewards. It lets you focus on the action combat throughout the dungeon. I can't imagine having to stop after each kill to analize loot on the floor. Eberron was the new hotness when DDO came out. I can see how a 5e player would expect Sword Coast since it's the current hotness but I like that Eberron is unique instead of generic medieval fantasy nº 1078.

[@MarleMMO]

I love this reply, thank you! I will mention it if you do not mind so that viewers have a balanced perspective after viewing my video. 💖

[@JLucaa]

@@MarleMMO Sure, go ahead. I'll repeat that despite what I've said this is one of the best reviews of the game I've seen.

[@MarleMMO]

@@JLucaa, thank you so much for the kind words. I did try to balance criticism with praise yet clearly missed the mark. Thank you for your balanced reply. 💖

[@jezlawrence720]

@@MarleMMO Also important to note: - Its not a double-tutorial problem. Korthos was all developed and released at once, replacing the game's previous *far* tougher intro. - the treasure chest mechanic design has nothing to do with the cash shop - its the other way around. When they decided to take the game F2P they went looking for various ways to monetise, and the chest reroll was one of them.

[@MarleMMO]

@@jezlawrence720, thank you for the history! 💖

[@TheFiretiger]

In regards to this choice of the setting: DDO launched back in 2006, the great designer search part of D&D 3rd edition when wizard to the coast was trying to actually have a structured intellectual property and they did not yet fully own the rights to forgotten realms, as it was owned by Ed greenwood at the time. The winner of the great setting search was Keith Baker with ebberon.the video games that came out at that time, Were dragonshard an RTS set in ebberon, and ddo, set in ebrreron. So the idea of a launch MMO was an effort to support the new current setting that they were really trying to promote. And it did do well in third edition's life cycle. At the beginning of 4th edition is when wizards of the coast actually bought the rights for forgotten realms and tried to make it the primary intellectual property and an actual setting if they could go back and forth on. The actual rights and licensing of DDO is actually one of those wild parts of its major history and the legal battles with Atari at that point in time before the free to play launch. Also, I feel like I've played every other MMO in the world and the they're still just nothing else like DDO. And it does require actual knowledge of 3.5 to really appreciate the depth and the complexity of the game, and that is its biggest strength and its biggest weakness it always has been. Second, biggest weakness is still at the UI does not have scaling even in 2024, and there's a lot of other systems under the hood that really just need to be redone entirely. Most of the complaints that you have that are technically incorrect are 1,000% the perception of what people see when they first start the game such as the Issues with monetization even if that's actually not a problem. Honestly as a long time player I would say that the current biggest problem with the game is actually power creep, and more systems that disincentivize people of playing together. Overall, it's a flawed game made by a small passionate group of flawed people. I encourage you to keep trying and exploring the game because even now after 17 years the game is still just as complex and thenmind virus of theory crafting Thank you for trying my favorite online game.

[@MarleMMO]

Thank you for the insightful reply! 💖

[@nighthiker]

I'm a bit late to the party, it looks like. :) First, I appreciate your decision to review the game. One knows it can always use the help. Do not let that be lost on some of the criticisms/additions I have to offer. As you did seem to gather from a comment you made thru the review, even if only in passing, DDO's greatest strength is also its greatest barrier to entry: its rich character creation and development system. I have more than once defended on the forums and the game's unnoficial Discord server that if they want to finally break free from the cycle of having to rely on a relativelly small but loyal player base to keep the game up and running they NEED to revamp the initial player experience - that's even more crucial with the advent of the new D&D movie that's coming out and all the new eyes it can potentially bring to the game - that won't help if those eyes still meet with that same barrier, and they'll have lost a huge opportunity. Unfortunately, it does not seem the developers share the same vision. On one hand I understand, you have very limited resources and if you do not pander to your old and regular player base and miss you can send the game on a death spiral - but unless they're happy with having the game stagnated growth wise, it's a risk worth considering. That is very patent from watching pretty much all attempts to review the game from channels like yours. All get stuck on the new player unfriendliness and never get to see the game for what it really is in its entirety. And I understand that - nobody that has a game reviews channel that is not already an avid DDO player will have the time to invest so much on a game with such a small player base. That's not a smart business decision either. ;) That said, I'll try to add some more nuance to a few things you mentioned that were not yet properly addressed by other commenters: People have already addressed some of the issues regarding your take on the monetization system - but I feel some more clarification is needed: there's nothing you can buy in the store that you can't eventually achieve in game given enough time and effort (be it from earning currency in game and using it in the store or just by simply playing it). The store items offer more of a shortcut toward those milestones other than any sort of money bought power creep. Items like experience pots, otto boxes, guild renew pots, etc. all make your grind faster by speeding the level up process, and there are some pots that increase the chance of getting named loot, but the items themselves are still the same free players have eventual access to. The few races you need to buy to play are not better than the free races, just mostly add some flavor, and all the other stuff that's exclusive to the store is also mostly of the cosmetic variety. Speaking of gear... With few exceptions, there's a somewhat set hierarchy of loot in the game, being: Raid loot > named items from regular quests > most crafted items (Cannith, SlaveLords, etc.) > random loot. Then, raid loot and named items that are part of a set generally take precedence over standalone ones. So if you absolutely want to get your hands on the best available gear for the endgame, you'll definitely need to participate in raids. But even solo players can still get good enough gear to run quests on higher difficulties, solo or in a group, like high reapers - it will just take some time farming as there is randomness on the drop tables - you may need to go thru several lives 1-20 or 30/32 before getting your hands on all the gear you want, or farm the same few quests many, many times if you don't feel like reincarnating. And that's where most of the crafting systems enter - like Cannith crafting - they are good, versatile enough stop gaps that you can eventually get to with enough investment to fill in the blanks while you farm for the best gear. However path you follow, all that only really comes into play once you get into the reincarnation business - while in most MMOs you have this concept of a "final" endgame once you finish leveling your toon once, in DDO the full level up process from 1 to (currently) 32 can be actually viewed as only a sort of ONE level on a much more meta character progression. You currently have dozens of available past lives (free feats/perks you get from reincarnating after playing a specific race, class or epic life), and the true end game, in my view, is going thru all those lives on a single character. On other MMOS once you get to the level cap all you can improve is your gear - on DDO you can keep improving on your character thru playing different archetypes thru different lives in an almost effectively limitless manner, aside from the gear grind. So in the end, even with a revamped new player experience one won't really get the full experience of character progression in this game without having played at least a few iteractions of the same character on different classes/races - the more, the better. That will demand literally months to years of investment in the game, though - so, like I said at the start... That's the game's biggest strength but also biggest hindrance to new players, who can easily feel overwhelmed. Either way, as someone who has played it since the launch in 2006, here's hope it remains chugging along, in whatever capacity, for many years to come. Cheers!

[@MarleMMO]

What a comprehensive reply! I hope others read your thoughtful response. Thank you for addressing areas I either overshadowed, misunderstood, or simply did not experience. I appreciate the care & attention you provided -- thank you! ❤️

[@GatileoGatilei]

i really really love this game, im not a D&D player tho, i downloaded it first more for the fact that its an MMO other than the subject, but it made me want to actually try the tabletop game I feel a big connection to the characters i make on here, much more than to any other game And you can actually earn DDO points by playing, every new character on a server will help u farm them Also, the hardcore seasons are super fun and in a sense really make the game a lot more tactical, trying to avoid your own or your party's perma

[@MarleMMO]

Thank you for sharing your thoughts Yo! Why do you feel a special connection to toons in DDO vs. other MMOs? 💖

[@Rood67]

Pretty good review. I was hoping for something more positive; which this could have been if you’d played the game more. Your pinned comment addresses some things you mistakenly spoke about; yet how many will read it? Things you got right: - creation is very much like pen and paper classic AD&D - multi-classing is possible if you look ahead. Your example, Monks and Paladins must be lawful. If you wanted to do this combo, you could have looked at the basic description of both Druid and Monk before building the initial character. The game tells you Monks must be lawful good or lawful neutral. And that Druids are not typically lawful. - bar bloat is real. The game allows a max of twenty, and I have all of them out in groups of three, horizontal and vertical to minimize their impact on screen real estate. - the player base is extremely loyal. I started in beta in 2005, and although I have at times taken a year or more off, I’ve been non stop since 2015. Some have never stopped. A few things you got wrong (may or may not be covered in your pinned comment) - the game is not pay to play or pay to win or forcing anyone to subscribe or buy from the store. - - that said, there are perks in the store for the impatient that want instant gratification. You can quickly earn a horse mount by running around the level 1 player zone and looting rare spawn chest. It will take a few trips to to get the feathers you turn in, but you get xp to level doing this, and no need to spend 2,000 store points - - almost everything that can be bought in the store can be earned in game, over time - membership has it’s place - - for the same cost as most any other pay to subscribe MMO ($14.95 / month down to $9.95 / month if bought a year at a time immediately unlocks all difficulty settings, grants access to nearly all content except the latest expansion packs, and grants 500 store points per month. 600 points is $7.99 and all,you get is 600 points. For $2.00 more (at the yearly subscription) you get 3,000 points, the content, plus so much more. - fantastic items drop from breakables. Breaking things is an xp bonus objective in all but a handful of quest that don’t want things broken at all. Money, weapons, armor, potions, scrolls, wands, etc…. Picking things up and selling what you don’t need is classic D&D way to earn wealth. - crafting ingredients come from clicking collectible nodes in quest - - this can also include rare collectibles that can be turned in to specific collectors in the city areas for items such as xp boost; which are 350 store points if bought there. Again, almost everything can be had by just playing the game - there are ways to earn feat swaps in game, so the comment about having to start over isn’t wrong, but isn’t entirely correct either. - some of the most rare items in game can be bought now with collectibles picked up by clicking the bags in a particular zone (Zawabi’s Refuge). And in turn, these level 10 - 12 items can be upgraded it the Twelve with other collectibles picked up,in the zone to be level 20 items that have additional stats. So yes, picking up a crap sword in a starter mission may be disappointing, it is not the norm. - - the Korthos zone needs to be overhauled so new players trying out the game don’t have the experience you ran into. The very first quest from the beach was redone. In the beginning, you could die and the end reward wasn’t great. All in all, DDO is an awesome game; and I hope more people will give it a try.

[@MarleMMO]

Thank you for your thoughtful and articulate response! I tried to be even-handed rather than negative despite my criticism. With that said, the next time I cover DDO, I'll be sure to spend more time in Everton to better embrace DDO. 🥰

[@vinniethefinger7781]

Been playing since 2006 and I have yet to peel back 90% of the layers to this game. I've played a number of other games but I keep coming back to this one. It's just a fun game. Part of the fun is actually building the characters over and over until you get one your comfy with. There are places that people have taken me to over the years that I can't remember how to get to. Plus it's still actively updated. Update 58 is due this year. Incredible. Don't forget reincarnation. I forgot to mention that they are working on a UI revamp and also the storage system.

[@MarleMMO]

Glad to hear! I hope to one day enjoy the reincarnation system too. 🥰

[@WckD135]

14:59 I used to play DDO when it first came out in 2008, the "Treasure is in the chest" gimmick is a nod to the style of editions previous to 3.5 where the loot wasn't on monsters but in the chest at the end of a dungeon ( being a primarily dungeon based game). Also when the game was buy to play there wasn't any re roll button.

[@MarleMMO]

Ooo, interesting. I'll have to read about the 'treasure is in the chest' idea. Thank you! 💖

[@WckD135]

@@MarleMMO if you like DND humor your should check out the web comic Goblins. One of the first bits is that one of the goblins is pointing out how stupid it is to keep the loot in a poorly locked chest in the center of the village instead of using the +1 spear to fight the adventurers

[@MarleMMO]

@WckD135 🥰

[@SuperDucote]

The traps make me happy. I was a wazard for a long time and played solo. Traps killed me all the time. Instakilled me at high lv. To the point I made a rouge. Now I love traps. I can save my friends from them

[@MarleMMO]

Rogues are so helpful! 💖

[@nilsalmgren4492]

What you said about ruining your chatacter is only true because ddo is now a community of self reliant characters where group play means you solo this part while I go solo that part so we can zerg this thing as efficiently as possible. Not exactly the traditional ddo group play DDO is evolved into a solo play game.

[@MarleMMO]

🥰

[@kokocaptainqc]

whenever anyone tells me to step it up i immediately take my sweet time more than ever

[@BeethoD]

The difficulty is behind a pay wall yes but only one member of the party needs to be subscribed to choose any difficulty. Also if you are free to play when you reach level 20 and reincarnate to level 1 you can open any quest on hard and if you do it again you effectively remove that restriction for that character. Also you do get constantly store points, you get 25 store points every 100 favor you earn (fame one one faction) and you get a bonus at certain milestones (first time getting 50 favor 200 favor, etc) The crafting you mention is Cannith crafting, is completely optional and you can make some niche items but tot much more. I use to make a Holy and pure good weapon for every character but now I just wait until level 10 and get my Barovian weapon who does the same amount of Holy damage plus an equal amount of fire damage. Also set bonuses destroy any hope of Cannith crafting been relevant any more.

[@MarleMMO]

Thank you for your informative reply! Do you consider DDO your main MMO? 🥰

[@BeethoD]

@@MarleMMO Absolutely, the game is 16 years old and I begin to play when it become free to play (13 years ago in module 9), I was free to play for years, buying some content with the points earned by playing and later I made some strategic buys with real money and now I'm VIP for over a year. I have played ESO, WOW, Star Trek online, Neverwinter, Lineage 2, Blade and soul, etc but DDO is unique, you have random traps to disable or to power through, you can even use stealth to avoid combat (extremely difficult to do but there is even a bonus XP for killing very few monsters called discreet, devious and insidious cunning that give 5% 7% or 10% bonus XP, I have never seen someone going for it on purpose but you can be the first 😃) I love this game, and I'm waiting the producer's letter to know what's coming in 2023

[@MarleMMO]

I appreciate the various ways in which a player can complete levels including via stealth! I wish the best for DDO in 2023. 🥰

[@DeathbringerGod]

Yes, Barovian weapon is really good and powerful, sometimes I play with it until level 29! BUT is in the expansion of Ravenloft, also most of the useful sets are in expansions and mini-expansion. Saludos Beetho! jaja Aguante DDO xD🇺🇾

[@MarleMMO]

@@DeathbringerGod 💖

[@drizzo4669]

The spell cast on you that keeps you from dying........you can get that spell at endgame and it does exactly that. Any hit, no matter how much damage, will not kill you but instead just incapacitate you.

[@MarleMMO]

I love it! Thank you for sharing. 🥰

[@SigfriedTrent]

Great introductory video to the game. Both the praise and critique is fair and thoughtful. I will say, as a vet of the game, that the dilemma and challenge of combat is there, but it's reserved for when you can start to play with the different difficulty settings to find the level of challenge you are interested in. On the other hand, the low damage numbers is something that changes at higher levels. They are still low compared to other MMOs but are quite a bit higher than normal tabletop D&D.

[@MarleMMO]

Thank you for the kind words, Sigfried! I wish more difficult content was available earlier for those trying the game. Thank you for the notice regarding damage numbers -- what is an average hit in the late game? 💖

[@SigfriedTrent]

@@MarleMMO At level 30, a normal hit with a melee weapon can be in the 300 base damage range (with lots of other added bonuses) A critical weapon hit is more like 2,000 damage. (they can be much higher with special attacks or builds designed just to get super high critical attacks) Spells can do much more, with spell damage in the low 1000s and criticals doing tens of thousands (which can be pretty common for dedicated spellcasters)

[@MarleMMO]

That is great to know. How much HP does a typical mob have in those later levels?

[@SigfriedTrent]

​@@MarleMMO I'm less sure of that. It varies a lot by quest, difficulty, enemy type, and so on. Some have millions (raid bosses and the like), the weakest maybe a few thousand and they die very quickly.

[@MarleMMO]

Thank you. ♥️

[@Cytl-bu3nq]

Hardcore NPC is only on the Hardcore server when it's up.

[@MarleMMO]

Thank you for the tip! 💖

[@JimbieXD]

Oh man... The mention of Ashron's Call just brought back soo many great memories... My very first MMO ever. I'll always cherish that game..

[@MarleMMO]

I intend to cover AC too (via private servers). Asheron's Call is such a unique MMO! 💖

[@JimbieXD]

@@MarleMMO That's a thing?! I'd love to get back into that game!

[@MarleMMO]

Yup! Check them out. ♥️

[@Feeluck]

especially in low heroic levels this games has similarities to 3.5 Edition DnD. they keep making changes that are more mmo-style, especially in endgame. but still it has a very unique and nice feel to it.

[@MarleMMO]

DDO is certainly unique! 💖

[@vulkansfire9666]

The quest that you have to buy the bottle from the item shop actually does gift you the points to buy it the first time an account gets the quest

[@MarleMMO]

Yes, thank you for the correction! 🥰

[@slowtarget3665]

I played it from the first days and still install it after i renewed my pc. Cant break with this game. There are so many things you can do with youre builds, its awsome. Sure, it needs some time to understand the mecanics, but then it opens a new world for the player. When i remember the first raid and what it takes to finish it. It was not the problem of killing the monsters, more the understanding and timing of the traps and riddles in the raid. You needed a group of twelve players with different qualitys, well prepared and a good teamwork. Oh men, i loved it and still do.

[@MarleMMO]

It'd be so fun to experience those early raids like you described! 💖

[@slowtarget3665]

@@MarleMMO Imagine, when the raids cames up all servers where in battle to finish the raid at first and it took weeks when the first server finished it. Perfect content. No publisher will dare to make such a difficult raid in this times, customers woude run away.

[@MarleMMO]

I love it. 💖

[@traviscue2099]

Just started this mmo this week, and at first I gave it an eh.. but I came back after playing with the resolution.. and while the combat starts off simple it gets more difficult. I just wish I had regulars to level with, since the hireling can only do so much! But keen to play more after hitting level 5

[@danbeck1593]

Fair review for sure. I’ll say the in game premium currency is very easy to acquire in game and if you are patient and wait for sales, people who play regularly and effectively will have plenty of currency to get the extras they want. And a great deal of extras you can buy for money can be earned with absolute ease by just questing for the right factions.

[@MarleMMO]

Thank you for the thoughtful reply; I agree that I missed the mark in my coverage of its monetization although I do hope they revamp how it is experienced due to its likelihood for confusion. 💖

[@canicusmolinarius]

Interesting comparison between DDO and traditional table-top D&D. Love this game!

[@canicusmolinarius]

Forgot to mention though, you absolutely get in game currency by playing the game. (by earning "favor") it's not at all difficult to do and there is no effective cap in how much you can earn. A new player will earn a few DDO points by playing a couple of quests.

[@MarleMMO]

Yes - others have also made it clear I misunderstood this element of DDO's medication. I wish the game did a better job at showcasing this system because in retrospect it could be generous yet experientially it feels obtuse and cumbersome. 😕

[@canicusmolinarius]

@@MarleMMO oh yes there is definitely a need to seek out information from outside sources. I've been trying to help people work through the free to play side of things on KZbin for a while. There are others, like Strimtom who you mentioned, that do builds and other informational content. It shouldn't have to be that way, but the onboarding process hasn't been updated in more than 10 years. I'm just glad you didn't try one of the pre-made paths they're garbage. There is a twitch streamer named DeathyTV that has every bit of content in the game and hasn't spent a dime. That kind of achievement takes an enormous amount of time, but it is possible. Standing Stone Games definitely tries to get money out of you, but it is much less predatory than many games out there. Even the currency you mentioned that you would use to reroll can be earned in game or made by trading valuable items to others.

[@MarleMMO]

Thank you for the added information & sources (including yourself)! I presume DDO is your 'main' MMO? 💖

[@littlefellah]

Great review! I really liked how you articulated the problem with opening harder content. Other than buying a VIP pass, you can get your character to level 20 and reincarnate. This will open Hard mode for all quests. Do it again and you’ve unlocked Elite. So even though it no longer becomes an issue for long time players like myself, it is an unnecessary complication that just strengthens the harsh barrier to entry for new players and I very much appreciate you voicing that opinion.

[@MarleMMO]

Thank you for the kind words -- I wonder if the issue would be alleviated if, when in Korthos, all new players had VIP enabled (much like Albion Online's newbie experience). That way, you see & experience the benefits so that when they're gone, you understand if continuing is worth it. 💖

[@ericanderson2482]

Glad to see DDO getting more love. Back playing after a hiatus of a few years.

[@MarleMMO]

Yeah, their recent coupon code is such an excellent way to bring more exposure to its content. 💖

[@s7ippy]

Good review. I take a lot of stuff for granted now but you point out a few things I never considered. You articulate game design well. A lot of issues stem from the very klugey nature of its evolution. Chests were not initially intended to be monetized but rather to compartmentalize rewards as players can Hoover up loot from breakables but loot in chests was for each individual. Years later when they went to a hybrid free to play model, the stuck some cash reroll crap on top. But in other parts of the game the quests are in huge empty wilderness areas and they try to sell you fast travel.

[@MarleMMO]

Thank you for the kind words & thoughtful response! When did you first play DDO? 💖

[@s7ippy]

@@MarleMMO since 2009. The game was more unforgiving then and they really wanted you to group up. Now it’s super easy and solo friendly. The game does present a lot of stuff at once and there are a lot of dead ends but part of discovery and exploration is finding fun builds and play styles.

[@MarleMMO]

🥰

[@jaycobra]

I have been playing DDO since 2006~2007. I have introduced many friends to it, and those who are still amongst the living (too many have died in real life), are still enjoying the game. We play almost nightly; and are still introducing new friends to the game. We live on the east coast, but play with friends who live in mountain time zone. In fact, my buddy from New Mexico's daughter-in law, is just waiting for her monitor to come in, so she can enjoy in all the fun. I home this will be around for a very long tine still! Some of the scenarios are very intense and complicated if you make the wrong design for your character and how you over come obstacles; just like in life. A bad choice can hurt, but a wise one can be enjoyable.

[@MarleMMO]

"A bad choice can hurt, but a wise one can be enjoyable." I miss games that utilize this design philosophy. 💖

[@jezlawrence720]

Neverwinter is *100%* dnd. Dnd 4th ed, that is. Which I played once, declared 'yeah, this seems like a great MMO, I don't really know what we're all doing round a table with this" and basically never went back to tabletop DnD. But I played Neverwinter and thought 'huh, this feels TOTALLY like that 4th ed game I played'. Which just goes to show faithful conversions in either direction are probably not a great idea. DDO is a very playable conversion, I think they've been reasonably sensible in deviating where need be to get the feel they want from their video game.

[@MarleMMO]

By Neverwinter, do you mean Neverwinter Nights or Neverwinter by Arc Games? 💖

[@charlesbanian9495]

At marker 1820, he mentions giving another weapon despite already having some. This is not for the reteaching of the players. Different monster are affected by different damage reduction, skeleton resist slash/pierce. Zombie resist bludgeoning and pierce....

[@MarleMMO]

Yes, although I did indicate that while it did/aim/ to serve that purpose, it ultimately fell flat due to its relationship to the initial tutorial. But, it's a minor issue. 🥰

[@charlesbanian9495]

Again at 2250 he mentions an issue with making mistake in the game and not being able to correct it. Much to his surprise there are few ways to correct a myriad of issues. But based on his lack of knowledge of the game, it appears he spent 5 to 10 minutes looking over it reading a few reviews online and that was it. I have been on since 2009, all you have to do is go on to any of the server's and ask for assistance. In fact last night I helped two brand-new players correct mistakes. So while everything that he says is on the surface correct, he does not know or play the game. If he did he would have a much different outlook on the DDO community.

[@MarleMMO]

@charlesbanian9495 Thank you for the thoughtful comment. I've spent 25 hours in DDO over several years - this video is closer to providing some impressions from a non-veteran. While I made mistakes or misunderstood a mechanic, these are opportunities for SSG to improve clarity. 🥰

[@kokocaptainqc]

for those wanting real timestamps here : 18:20 and 22:50

[@MrChupacabra555]

One of the people who bought the game soon after it came out, although I admit I haven't played it in years now. I do like the 'point buy' system for stats, as it allows you to make exactly the character you want, although I think the 'roll dice' method works at an actual table, if all players are doing it, forcing you to role play and make choices to compensate for your weaknesses. Think I'll check it out soon, to see what the previously premium races allow (and maybe even buy access to the 'Forgotten Realms', always thought it was strange they put it in the new at the time Eberron setting in the first place)

[@MarleMMO]

🥰

[@thedooran]

Best thing about DDO is reincarnation. Stacking past lives is the way to go

[@MarleMMO]

Others have said such! I wish I played to the point of being able to interact with this system. ❤️

[@dennisdeal3323]

I have been playing DDO consistently for the last 8 or 9 years. Yes, its player base is mostly of older adults. Mainly in the 30+ range. The learning curve for the game is steep and it takes time to learn it. Your first toon will probably be flawed and badly so. The pay to win crap seems to be something a lot of games offer and SSG has climbed on board for that trend. SSG keeps it to the minimum, but it is still there. It is not going to go away anytime soon either. But as I tell new players if your toon has a fatal flaw. All the pay to win sh*t is not going to change that fact. Also joining a good guild is something that a new player should do. In a good guild there will be players that can help and guide a new player and speed up that learning curve. The crafting system needs to be upgraded in the worse way. Its last upgrade saw the end of having to use multiple essences to craft something. That was a good 5 or 6 years ago. It is now covered with cannith essences or blue berries as my wife and friends call them. And it is a time and resource sink to get a toon to start making good craftable items. Yeah, I wish that I could craft a an item or weapon out of whole clothe. But that is not going to happen any time soon.. Bummer. The reason for Ebberron I think was when Turbine developed the game. It was either the cheaper license or that neverwinter was going to be set in the Forgotten Realms. WoTC did not want two RPG's set in the same world at the time. I forget which was the case. At any rate there is an expansion set in Cormyr. Though that seems to be the only expansion into Forgotten Realms. There does not seem to be any plans to adding to it at the moment. Possibly due to additional licensing costs. It also should be noted that SSG (Standing Stone Games) is not the large company that Turbine was. It shows too. CCS is more of an email affair and no, you can not really call customer service. Add an an already old game engine with codes from 18 years ago. Things that doesn't happen in other games. Tend to happen. Lag and game breaking things will happen. Sometime annoying and at times exasperating. But the Devs do work hard. Especially Tonquin who takes care of the minor coding of things that have gone wrong. She does great work and sees that these minor issues are resolved before becoming a major headache. I do not know how much they are paying her, but it isn't enough in my opinion. At the end the game, for me, is enjoyable as there there is always something new to learn or experience. It keeps me subbing every 3 months. If you happen to see a well dress h/elf rouge carrying a great axe on the Kyber server. That might just be me. The Producer letter came out a few days ago. There will be an expansion is coming set in the Forgotten Realms. The Red Wizards of Thay. As well as a new archetype. Though what the new archetype is has been hinted at as being something to do with dragons. It should be an exciting new year.

[@MarleMMO]

What a great reply; thank you for sharing! 🥰;

[@user-wh2nt5ce5r]

To be fair you do unlock harder difficulties after you finish leveling a character to max and "TR" it (use the reincarnation system to redo your character) But I do understand how this could affect the new player experience so I can't refute you saying it's a bad system

[@MarleMMO]

Yeah, you're correct. I wish, at least for the tutorial, that the quest difficulties were unlocked. 💖

[@PhrozenFox]

A dragon in a dungeon? Great end to the tutorial area!

[@MarleMMO]

Absolutely! 💖

[@TorchesUponStars]

Hey there. I hope the comments have already explained what you missed about the setting of the game! Eberron is its own dedicated campaign setting, designed for the then-new age of D&D 3rd edition after Wizards of the Coast bought the rights from the mismanaged TSR! I feel like DDO isn’t quite doing Eberron justice, but I love that it exists all the same, because it’s D&D media that decidedly _isn’t_ set in the Forgotten Realms. And as you do quests, you earn favour, and for each milestone of “most favoured earned on a single character” you get on a server, you get free points and special unlocks.

[@MarleMMO]

Thank you for adding those details! I can appreciate that DDO is not strictly in the Forgotten Realms and am glad that they attempted exploring another direction. 💖

[@jaidengee221]

Wait for the DDO quest code, get friends, 7/10

[@MarleMMO]

Yeah, the quest code unlocks a ton of content! 💖

[@Matuse]

So, things: 1) Druids can melee using their bear and wolf forms, but calling them spellcasters is completely accurate. Druid offensive spellcasting smashes the universe into tiny bits. Just not at level 1. 2) The chests act to aggregate the loot you got from all the enemies you fought prior to the chest. That's instead of having to individually loot bodies of every enemy which was (and is) the norm in MMOs. The existence of the chests pre-dates the premium currency reroll mechanic by about 8 years. 3) When the game first released, Normal difficulty was hard. Very hard. 6 players totally wiping was common. Elite was brutally difficult. You only tried it when you had a full party of overleveled characters who had very good equipment. I remember one time I went in on a level 2 dungeon on Elite with a level 7 character, and one of the trash mobs at the start had such a high AC that nobody in the party could hit it except on a 20. We were crushed. Over the years, the difficulty levels have been smoothed, monsters nerfed a bit, and player power increased substantially. A free to play player starting up and going straight into elite will not be experiencing a fun game. They'll die. A lot. Constantly. Normal is not easy mode. 4) Buying your way to success is just...wrong. The purchaseable classes and races are not better than the free ones. And premium currency is obtained in large amounts by simply playing the game. Finishing more dungeons gives you more store points.

[@MarleMMO]

Thank you for your thoughtful reply! I presume DDO is your main MMO? 🥰

[@gavinziozios1431]

There are certain classes, like artificer, that feel very much like an insta-win pass. I made a warforged artificer. Focused on damage with repeating crossbows. He's not even built very good. He's level 30, and it was all done almost exclusively solo

[@MarleMMO]

OP, eh? 💖

[@AxltheTemplar]

There are things you missed. The premium points are really easy to get. Ddo points. And they also are every few months releasing all the old quests as well. Characters can be fixed, although later stage characters are wayyyy harder to fix. Edited for grammar.

[@MarleMMO]

Thank you for the corrections! 💖

[@AxltheTemplar]

@@MarleMMO Awesome video by the way!

[@MarleMMO]

I appreciate the kind words! I hope to correct my mistakes in my next coverage of DDO. 💖

[@AxltheTemplar]

@@MarleMMO Anytime, your video sets are awesome.

[@MarleMMO]

💖💖💖

[@caiomartinsnazarethmachado4868]

DDO was never meant to be soloed. Grouping up is the best experience you can have in the game, you can easily do that by hitting O and joining the groups, granted, it's good to know the dungeons beforehand and do them in easiest difficulties, but if you say you're a beginner, i've NEVER seen anyone diss out a new player before.

[@MarleMMO]

I do love that about the game -- does any form of level scaling exist? I tried joining groups to low level dungeons (& even starting my own) yet I came up empty. 💖

[@stephenrandazzo220]

the dice rolls and Astral shards were a recent update they didn't start that way. Also the difficulties are locked but for a good reason, enemies are harder to kill and you take more damage each difficulty, now I've played guildwars, wow, divinity baldurs gate, neverwinter. DDO has been in my opinion more fun, after 50 patron points from completing quests you get 50 ddo points. standing stone and turbine have put alot of work into this game. You also forgot to add that ddo added a reincarnation update for players that want to rebuild their characters and they get new points and feats to spend as they go thru past lives

[@MarleMMO]

Yes, you are correct that I didn't mention reincarnation for which I am regretful. However, I wish I could at least access higher difficulties without paying - locking content is fine, but a challenge? 🥰

[@HierophanticRose]

Cryptic's Neverwinter Online is a shame upon the name of Neverwinter. I havent tried DDO but had fun in LOTRO, getting premium items through doing deeds was a fun grind, I will try DDO too maybe.

[@MarleMMO]

Neverwinter felt like DnD in name only, yet DDO does a good job honoring its setting. 💖

[@Miss_Matched]

"Since damage numbers are reasonably low in comparison to other MMOs, your entire attack could be absorbed by your foe" *Looks at top tier players dealing 700k damage*

[@MarleMMO]

Yeah, as discussed elsewhere in the comments, this observation is tied to the early game experience. 🥰

[@EricN73158]

Embers Adrift is doing a open weekend coming Jan 26/27 to Jan 29. A good time to check out the game with no cost to you. You should check out their discord to see the event for more details I was just giving you a heads up so you don't need to throw away your money on something you may not like.

[@MarleMMO]

Yeah! Thank you for the reminder. It's on my calendar to cover now! 🥰

[@catherinemorgan2741]

Only skeletons need blunt weapon, other undead can use a slashing weapon

[@MarleMMO]

Thank you for the tip! 🥰

[@revakrockhard3288]

Thank you. I have been playing since 2006 and still do so today. Great Video!

[@MarleMMO]

Thank you! I'm so glad you enjoy DDO. 💖

[@okamihikuro1401]

By the way, combat can be very difficult and very tactical. It depends on the difficulty (try playing reaper 7 on your first life) and class you play. Melee classes, especially pure fighter, don't shine on tactic variability on table-top too. Though, I have to admit, for a party of old players even most difficult content might turn to merciless zerg, where casters wipe everything on-site with crazy AoE spells. But in the end of a day, it is not a turn-based game, even not with an active pause (like BG or Icewind Dale), not much space for tactics here. Not to mention gameplay on reaper mode, when reapers spawn chaotically, on your flank or back and 1-shot you if you are not well prepared.

[@MarleMMO]

Thank you for the description! I wish there was a better sense of this chaos in earlier levels. ♥️

[@canicusmolinarius]

@Ōkami I agree about combat. The tutorial area is not a fair judgement on the difficulty of the game. With 14 different difficulty levels and a semi regular permadeath server, there is plenty of challenge. Although your point about super experienced players is also very true. Knowledge of the quests is the most valuable power you can have.

[@MarleMMO]

I wish more difficult content was available earlier on. 😕

[@okamihikuro1401]

@@MarleMMO You could try to join a party, so that another player would open elite difficulty for you. Or repeat quest until you open elite for yourself. Or get a subscription for 1 month. There are actualy options. I, myself, dont like to play solo, as it is not DnD for me.

[@MarleMMO]

Yeah, I did mention those options in the video. 🙂

[@okamihikuro1401]

Most immersive, variable, and difficult MMORPG there is. Love it so much! Playing since 2011.

[@MarleMMO]

So glad it's been your MMO home! ♥️

[@okamihikuro1401]

@@MarleMMO Yeah, DDO never lets you go. I go away to play another MMO (Like Neverwinter) but I always come back. And the fascinating fact - DDO got better since I played it on Europe servers a long time ago. It really is an MMO home, with a super-great community, astonishing devs, and old friends.

[@MarleMMO]

Glad to hear! Sounds similar to my love of EQ. ♥️

[@WolfSpiritMan]

Once you begin to master the complexity, you cannot deny its allure... This game is super SUPER deep, especially the character progression. There is a mechanic that has been neglected here which is very rewarding. You make a "main" and you play your chosen race/class to lv 20. From there you can continue into epics and legendary, OR... You can perform a True Resurrection back into a lv 1 character. Why? Because you get a permanent "Past Life" feat to carry with that character FOREVER. This feat is race or class specific, so . And it is not an insignificant buff. And it can be stacked 3 times. The past life mechanic is reminisce of achieving "immortality" in classic D&D. As an immortal (not to be confused with getting monster stomped) you continue to stack these feats and bonuses. You get ever more powerful, while being able to play various classes and races during your journey. This mechanic is unlike ANY other conceived in any other game I have ever experienced. It gives this game better replayability than anything else I've ever enjoyed. If Standing Stone EVER pulls its head out of its "store" and frees up even MORE content, then maybe reskins a bit to fix the visual bugs and make it look modern... And then bravely pushes the advertisement buttons... This game would be loved by the masses...

[@WolfSpiritMan]

This is just the tip of a large iceburg. There are also Epic feats that TRing your Epic character from 30/32 back to 20 will unlock. Also stackable 3x feats (also one for each class and race), also able to change class/race as desired. Your character is truly unlocked in so many ways once one gets past the tutorial issues and ugly starting areas.

[@MarleMMO]

I do wish I experienced the rebirth feature! I think it's a very clever way to keep content relevant for all players since the population can circle back and play through it again. 💖

[@WolfSpiritMan]

@@MarleMMO Korthos is horrible. I disliked it from the moment it came out. Every single new player I come across is confused by Korthos. Parts of it are great at guidance, but the parts that aren't are not. Korthos is like playing Europa Universalis IV with all DLC, directly after playing the very first Europa Universalis. (for those non-EU4 players, It feels a bit like the blind leading the blind across a busy highway) SO much has changed in the gaming/hardware/software worlds as well as within DDO itself, that the starting areas feel slow and lazy... They put out the newbie friendly Boarderlands expansion a while ago which is miles further than Korthos. But they STILL lock new players behind a wall of Korthos. Its too bad because much of the rest of the game is absolutely brilliant. Especially since the game gets fun after lv 12ish and vastly more fun beyond that all the way and back again. Since Korthos is lvs 1 & 2 and boring, people are already impatient. The math doesn't work out there. The fact is, the majority of Humans take first impressions to heart. They really do. And ANY confusion or missguidance or especially boring moments in the beginning of a complex game will scare away far more than it will entice. It is unlikely that anyone having a "casual" attempt at Dungeons & Dragons Online will EVER feel the true fun and power of a multi -life journey... It is what it is. 🤷‍♂

[@MarleMMO]

Interesting perspective - was the borderlands tutorial made available with the coupon code? 🥰

[@WolfSpiritMan]

@@MarleMMO Doubtful. The best content has to be unlocked, of course. It isn't exactly a tutorial. Just one of the lowest of level quest areas. But you get a decent amount of Favor doing things on Elite or Reaper if you've the will. The best way to experience the game is probably by just getting the $15 monthly script for one month, and dedicating that month to a deep dive

[@thehatebringer8005]

keep in mind Jeets gives you a weapon because he just finished stealing all your gear...lol

[@MarleMMO]

😅😂

[@Attlanttizz]

I think some of the observations you make would change if you started playing end-game quests on high reaper difficulty, or even the mid-level quests on higher difficulty. You would soon notice that the weaker aspects of your character/build manifest and it's not necessarily a one man show anymore.

[@MarleMMO]

I wish such access was more readily available at early levels. 🥰

[@dsplace0531]

omg. Everytime I see one of your videos I want to try a new MMO :). I havent played DDO but it looks very interesting.

[@MarleMMO]

I'm so glad! DDO is absolutely worth trying. I hope you enjoy it! 💖

[@canicusmolinarius]

you should absolutely try it. but use the standalone client. the steam one is buggy

[@MarleMMO]

♥️

[@geoffwinton7619]

Been on a long break from DDO - played from not long after release and own every expansion / adventure pack... been a little disappointed with recent expansions as not great value for money but I am going to return to the game now I think.. reincarnate my main and run through it all again for old times sake... Have tried some of the more recent MMOs - New World (800+ hours sunk), FF14, ESO and various others - graphically they have the advantage but I still think DDO has the best combat system I have ever experienced... Just hope Standing Stone can produce some really nice new content again one day as everything since the Sharn expansion has felt a bit lacklustre... thanks for the vid - think it emphasises how important it is that they revamp the new player experience... it's not great and doesn't even hint at how good the game gets as you progress... there is some amazing content but you won't experience it for far too long after joining as a new player....

[@MarleMMO]

Thank you for the thoughtful reply! Why do you feel that DDO has the best combat? 🥰

[@ahorsleyjr]

I am a long time player of ddo, and I agree that there are a lot of things that could be done better. I also am of the opinion that this game's complexity is a boon to help keep you after the first few lives you might run with enthusiasm. Most games i have played are extremely linear and not friendly to grouping with friends to lv up. Games like ffxiv and wow have a tedious quest progression system like having to go talk to this person than go to that person than go back.... in ddo you get your party and choose a quest, than hop in and get to the action. It also encourages you to reach max lv to reset/start your questing experience as a different class or race. As far as needing a way to respec, they have it, though if you are f2p it might be better to restart your toon or lv till you can tr. As far as crafting it is good enough to allow you to not need to farm other gear.

[@MarleMMO]

Thank you for the thoughtful reply! Is crafting functionally an after thought? 🥰

[@djrendon73]

@@MarleMMO There are many crafting systems in the game. Most unfortunately fell to the wayside as better crafting and equipment came out over the years. It's something I would love them to go back and update. Also hot bar bloat is not a problem for me as I use one and shuffle through the bars with my side mouse buttons while playing in FPS mode lol.

[@MarleMMO]

@@djrendon73, glad to hear about hot bar bloat & noted about crafting. Hopefully they revisit it in the future. ❤

[@marcuscanyon2054]

This is one of my favorite mmo’s i have come and gone since early 2007 , and i have put some rime in many fantasy mmo’s .. its sll subjective to taste and this one is up there on mine even with its age , but than i am a tad old lol , having first played PnP In like the late 70s early 80s and playing early grid based fantasy games in the early 80s on pc as well ... enjoy your journeys

[@MarleMMO]

I envy your rich PnP experience! 💖

[@dennisdeal3323]

I am 61 and the wife is 75.. Don't tell I told you lol.. Many of the people that we know are in their fifties and sixties. You are not to old to enjoy the game.

[@carsonfball4]

14:50 Nearly all classes are better with weapons at early levels. Druids can one-hit kill multiple mobs with a single spell at higher levels, though they still aren't the best spell-casters in the game.

[@MarleMMO]

Thank you for the tip! 🥰

[@Blindsyde5762]

....wait.... Velveeta isnt cheese !?!? 😮

[@MarleMMO]

xD 💖

[@marksoberay2318]

Just this week DDO released an albino mount for 200 bucks along with a few other items in the bundle, several people including myself bought it, I've never seen this dedicated of a player base

[@MarleMMO]

How long have you been playing DDO? ♥️

[@marksoberay2318]

@@MarleMMO since march 2010

[@MarleMMO]

12 years! Incredible. ♥️

[@HollowGolem]

Every time I watch somebody go through DDO, I'm reminded how badly the game starts up. Some of the more interesting quests don't show up until level 5 or 7 (Partycrashers, The Put, etc.) But many players will probably get bored before they can get to the really good stuff. I think it's part of the original sin of 3.5 D&D which DDO is sadly saddled with as a core mechanic. It also presents a lot of balance issues that didio has had to wallpaper over in the decades since opening, and which pen and paper D&D has had to work around as well. I also see that you ran into the problem most casters have, which is again a consequence of 3.5 D&D: being a caster sucks at low levels. Most wizards and sorcerers just pick up a great ax and cast masters touch on it until about level 3 to 5, at which point their spells have scaled to such a degree that they're worth casting.

[@MarleMMO]

Thank you for the thoughtful comment! It would be great to experience some of the more well beloved quests albeit I generally like Korthos. With a few tweaks, I think the new player experience can drastically improve. 🥰

[@HollowGolem]

@@MarleMMO I just think those later quests really show what the game is capable of. The Pit especially underscores how well DDO uses its 3d space and implements platforming elements in a way very few other MMOs do. Partycrashers is fun because if you have enough skill ranks in spot (or True Seeing, or Detect Evil from a paladin) and diplomacy/bluff/intimidate skills, you can literally talk your way out of the final boss fight. It also has loads of optional objectives that make the zone feel huge, and contains the only fat elf I've ever seen in fantasy.

[@MarleMMO]

What fun ideas! Hopefully one day I'll get to enjoy them too. 🥰

[@kokocaptainqc]

i love LOTRO and like DDO but the pit almost made me go crazy....its a maze fo the sake of being a maze and thats the only thing i dont like about Turbine/SSG...they put mazes EVERYWHERE and it gets tiring after a while

[@UchihaKat]

I'm sorry, i was very distracted by you pronouncing it Muh-LAY. Melee is MAY-lay. That said, Druid is unusually bad with targeting its low level spells. I've played several types of casters and druid truly is uniquely bad at the low levels for spells.

[@MarleMMO]

How unlucky I am in both respects! 😅

[@MarleMMO]

Yet thank you for the correction and commentary on early druid spell casting ♥️

[@sunwarrior25]

If you think Cannith Crafting is obtuse, try Greensteel crafting! I love my Ooze spawning repeater!

[@MarleMMO]

💖💖💖

[@sunwarrior25]

@@MarleMMO btw. I really do recommend the Ooze spawning greensteel weapon. The last time I played the character that has it, there didn't appear to be an upper limit to the number of Black Puddings spawned. This makes it one of the few ways to exceed the normal Summon Limit (1 hireling, 1 combat pet, and 1 Summoned Monster, per player). The main downside, aside from damage resistances in the late game, is during the game's Reaper difficulty, where creatures spawning and dying both have a percent chance of spawning any one of the reapers.

[@MarleMMO]

Very clever use of the weapon! I love mechanics like that. 💖

[@CrypticApathy]

They went with Ebboron due to it being a big thing when the game first came out. It was a new thing to DnD.

[@MarleMMO]

Thank you CrypticApathy! Others have also mentioned that connection. ❤️

[@gregorybrazell5133]

REALLY wish they would do a remake or whatever for DDO. It's an utterly amazing game, but it came out at a weird time for MMOs and suffered from some horrible issues at the start. It would do even better if the remake was made to be able to be played on console, but not required, really (just would get them hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of extra players). I know it's possible, too, because I used controller on PC for multiple years: you can set it up to have ~32 hotkeys using a standard Xbox controller, just saying. But, if they updated the graphics, controls to be smoother, etc, and remarketed it? It would completely rejuvenate the entire everything for this game.

[@MarleMMO]

A truly authentic DnD MMO would be awesome! 💖

[@gregorybrazell5133]

@@MarleMMO The best way would, honestly, be to go back to 1st/2nd editions, but add the kits. That way characters would have pretty standardized statistics, balancing, etc. Hate to side with Bioware in stuff like this, but it's easy to see they try to keep things really straightforward and simple, but allow options. That's necessary for MMOs to work well. I love freedom to go crazy customizing and theory-crafting, but that stuff is nearly impossible to build a game for, because players get CRAZY on min-maxing, will come up with ideas you would never think of, even with a THOUSAND developers. It's why Neverwinter works so much better, has so many more players, etc. But, they went way too far away from D&D mechanically. Stick with 1st and 2nd, plus kits and all that was in 2nd.

[@MarleMMO]

Yeah, I hear you. Unfortunately, as you said, Neverwinter has done well /despite/ its DnD heritage; it's a mere mask, and little more. :(

[@Cytl-bu3nq]

Then You, did not put enough time into crafting, I read about it, tried it out and it is quite simply a good design. The problem is that no one wants to learn and simply wants to zerg their way through quests.

[@MarleMMO]

Glad it seemed reasonable to you. 👍

[@terrymills810]

NIce video I see you addressed some of the mistaken comments in your Comment section. Like many have said if you play the game longer the combat is better. If you play on the hardcore server when it is up you get the feeling of life or death with every combat and you really explore all the classes bc you die a lot or at least I do.

[@MarleMMO]

Thank you for the kind words and insightful suggestions! I appreciate them. 🥰

[@catherinemorgan2741]

Never let game pick your build, better off watching YT and learn what to pick for your toon

[@MarleMMO]

Good advice! It's funny when games make this an option yet it's almost always bad. 💖

[@djrendon73]

There are some very hard quest and raids that take timing and skill to finish in the game. One of my favorites was the shroud.

[@MarleMMO]

I'm glad to hear! I wish more was available earlier on. 🥰

[@thedooran]

Dude! Frickin Shroud! Love that raid! My fave quest was The Pit, everyone hated it, but i loved it. Man i miss this game.

[@MarleMMO]

Why is it your favorite raid? ♥️

[@gavinziozios1431]

@@thedooran My dad got me into DDO, and be always told me to avoid the Pit if I can. Eventually, I made him do it with me. It... Really wasn't that bad. The part I found the hardest is at the very end, because the Trogs always seem to find a way to decimate my hit points. While I'm not a fan of the Shroud, I absolutely love Project Nemesis. There's something about it being one powerful adventurer group versus another powerful adventurer group that really appeals to me. Also, the satisfaction of killing Irk. Again. That bastard holds a special place of hate in my heart

[@MarleMMO]

Ha! Why was Irk so satisfying to defeat? 💖

[@codyperry372]

I used to be heavy into DDO, unfortunately the player base dried up. Hate playing in servers with 7 other people. Friends and I talk about going back from time to time, but we can't figure out where everyone went. Argonesson used to be the cat's meow.

[@MarleMMO]

I imagine that the population has consolidated and may be more easily accessible on Discord. I bet DDO with friends is lovely! 🥰

[@gavinziozios1431]

Has it really? I made a Dragonborn sorcerer on Argonesson (I play primarily on Khyber) to test a build I was interested in trying out for my main guy, and I was constantly getting accosted by different guilds

[@MarleMMO]

@@gavinziozios1431, I was able to join a guild too. 💖

[@kokocaptainqc]

thats just false...been playing all servers from time to time since about 5 years ago and ive always seen MINIMUM 10 players per city district...and since i play solo it doesnt matter if theres people around or not...i dont play it becuase its trendy and cool i play it because its fun to play

[@snonyabeeswax]

lol guildwars two dropped good gear for me and the fact i can actually earn enough gold for diamonds is great

[@MarleMMO]

💖

[@dust921]

i think they should build a toon builder into game or send u to a link because all the times i rerolled lol

[@MarleMMO]

Yeah! It is very hard to in-game plan a character. :/

[@neiska25]

I've given thought to playing DDO again, but my biggest complaint is that I love and adore pet classes in games, and from what I remember about DDO is that pet classes are considered poor scaling and generally bad. As long as I could still solo I wouldn't mind though.

[@MarleMMO]

In theory, you could roll a druid or artificer with a henchman! 🥰

[@neiska25]

@@MarleMMO - I think druids had just came out when I last played, which was years ago I think. I usually like druids in tabletop because they can do a lot. They aren't "best" at anything, but can step into any role to perform, from tank to healer and so on. No idea if that's the case with DDO druids. But I would love to have a Druid with a animal pet, a summon or two, and a hechmen, with me playing caster or tanker as situation required. No idea if that setup is even possible though, especially for someone starting fresh without all the many re-birth things if that's still a thing. I could never get behind that mindset either, having to play so many other classes just to get the one build/class i was interested in as far as possible. But this is just me going off memory, could be wrong about it all!

[@MarleMMO]

What you describe *seems* possible in DDO -- whether or not it's 'playable' is another consideration altogether. Good luck! 💖

[@gavinziozios1431]

@@neiska25 So, from what I've seen, bear form druids and caster druids are the best. My dad was a bear form druid. He simply could not die because of how tanky he was, and he hit like a truck. His only downside was that he was slow. Caster druids, I've seen people play them. They cause destruction similar to that of a bombardier alchemist

[@MarleMMO]

Noted! 💖

[@mokeimusic]

This is the only game I play, there is so much to do in this game I am not interested in any other game. I did try others years ago but none of them are as good as this.

[@MarleMMO]

I love it! Why in particular do you love DDO so much? ❤️

[@jamesrobinson2086]

Um.. DDO came out first.. not LOTR... also, you are mistaken on Loot. It also drops from breaking items in the quests, killing creatures also has a chance of dropping collectibles (for crafting and boost turn-ins), as well as chests. Running higher difficulties can also get you SP recovery when you kill opponents as well as remnants.

[@MarleMMO]

😂 Yeah! Thanks for the clarification! 🥰

[@catherinemorgan2741]

Playing DDO for 10 yrs diff companies have owned it

[@MarleMMO]

Warner Bros then Standing Stone, right? 💖

[@charlesbanian9495]

I have experienced the power creep and zerg mentality as destructive to the game

[@MarleMMO]

You feel it's destructive? 🥰

[@charlesbanian9495]

@@MarleMMO absolutely, if you don't have the latest gear or pack you are often denied groups. Then you're stuck if you don't pay.

[@MarleMMO]

@charlesbanian9495 interesting; thank you for sharing! 🥰

[@charlesbanian9495]

@@MarleMMO That an an account I had for over a decade was stolen from me. Is why I stopped playing about 2 years ago.

[@MarleMMO]

I'm so sorry. 💖

[@MrMoonfear]

some wrong information inside, but in general good review, and DDO deserve more videos like that, to get people, so SSG finaly upgrades engine and creates da best MMO that ever existed :D

[@MarleMMO]

Thank you for the kind & corrective words MrMoonfear! I hope others are inspired to play DDO as a result of watching the video. ❤️

[@ThePariahDark]

I play DDO since the beta. You say "It is balanced for solo combat" yet that is not what it was originally. Tutorials aside, DDO was almost univerally group dependant. Sure, if you were good with the system you could solo _some_ instances, but even something as Redfang the Unruled was so hard alone you needed a party ... back during the beta / when DDO came out. Spellpoints are also not an invention of DDO. They were first released in Unearthed Arcana, a so called variant rule for 3.5 - which was already out by the time DDO was made. Edit: you are also wrong. That quest that teaches you about the store DOES give you 5 points for the store, and you keep getting small amounts again and again.

[@MarleMMO]

I do wish I was able to play DDO earlier when it was more group-oriented, and thank you for the corrections! 💖

[@ThePariahDark]

@@MarleMMO Glad to see a KZbinr who can take an opinion without shadowbanning the comment. I am glad you like DDO, call it brave.

[@MarleMMO]

We're better together! 💖

[@deathbunni5774]

They got different level of difficulty for dungeons. You obviously have not played Elite or Reaper mode yet. I have not played this game in years, but it's my second favorite game behind Black Desert Online.

[@MarleMMO]

🥰♥️

[@catherinemorgan2741]

On free, you have to play same quest 3 times (normal-hard-elite) it's a downside but like all online games require money at some point

[@MarleMMO]

Yup -- I just wish that exclusion was lifted on Korthos. 💖

[@Omen0004]

So I’d never actually heard of this game before today (I was always a console player until 2022). This looks good. Is it worth starting playing now or will the game be dead?

[@MarleMMO]

As long as you join the Discord and actively seek out groups, you should be set! As others have said, characters can "reborn," so there are usually players at every level range. 🥰

[@sophisticatedidiot8737]

Man, DDO... It was the first video game I ever played, and it's what got me into DnD and video games both. I noticed most of the other comments, so I'm not gonna bloat this comment by restating them. I'm just gonna say, great video! It's surprising to me to see anyone revisiting these ancient games. I will say though, that Faerun was not the standard back then. It has become standard, but back in 3.5e and even adnd, there were MANY settings, and I don't think Faerun really stuck out more than the others. Eberron will personally remain my home setting for any games I run. It's familiar, but just different enough from most other settings that it feels incredibly unique. Dark Sun could use a revival though, one day.

[@MarleMMO]

Thank you for the thoughtful comment! I'm currently following the development of a Dark Sun NWN1 server. 🥰

[@erickmejia1643]

You can't complain about the narrator getting cut off when you are clearly rushing through with skipping dialogue and stuff lol. Otherwise good video bro

[@MarleMMO]

🤣 🥰

[@dust921]

i love the past lives thing to :) stitting at lvl cap 4 me = old age and death but i come from planetside 2 it hass no lvl cap i love its endless leveling system & i dont need to reroll or sit at cap with no growth not shure what lvl my mane is but i bin playing it for like 20+ ish years so a billion ish lol

[@MarleMMO]

I wish I got to experience the past-lives feature! 💖

[@narril4884]

@@MarleMMO Getting to experience some of the finer features of DDO in my opinion takes time. Reincarnation is possible once you reach lvl 20. Reincarnation gives a bit more power to you each time you do it. You get more build points for your 2nd and 4rd life you play. Also each class has small bonuses you get and they stack 3 times, very small bonus but progress is still there. On top of that, there is also option to choose Race based reincarnation, you get small bonus that also stack 3 times for each race you play through, another way to progress when all classes are done. The ability to reincarnate and that tiny stackable bonus for each life makes the game environment so so different compared to other games. There are usually players still on all levels playing the game even tho the game is so many years old!

[@narril4884]

A typo creeped to my ansver, 2nd and 3rd lives you get that buildpoint increase. You might ask how long i have been playing? 5 years and still even my main character is progressing through classes and races etc. Reincarnation is also great to experience other classes with the same character, no need to make new characters for every class and every race individually. And the loot you gathered throughout your lives, you can save caster style stuff even tho you are playing ranged or melee currently and use them when you do a caster reinc.

[@MarleMMO]

Thank you for the added details Narril. Is DDO your "main" MMO? 💖

[@narril4884]

@@MarleMMO Yes main MMO.. Other games are moro of singleplayer and grandstrategy style

[@sbeehre]

There is also the Borderlands which i think they should push more people into as its a much nicer starting area and probably would be a more impressive experience for newbies.

[@MarleMMO]

I'll have to check it out! 💖

[@sbeehre]

@@MarleMMO also you get level 1 blue gear from wilderness boss's which is updated and much better than the old gear in Korthos.

[@MarleMMO]

Interesting! 💖

[@kokocaptainqc]

@@sbeehre only the shield is nice the rest is pretty much meh

[@catherinemorgan2741]

I do like how you explain things

[@MarleMMO]

Thank you. 💖

[@dust921]

im back in DDO after like 10 years i miss thhe build freedom splitty 4 life

[@MarleMMO]

I'm so happy for you! 💖

[@TGAPOO]

This review doesn't really tell why people love the game. We usually speed through those early quests... or skip them outright. There's also a few things you got wrong: It is ENTIRELY possible to get everything for free. DDO feeds you premium currency for playing. You earn favour for completing quests, and every 50 favour gives you store points. There's also a LOT of bonuses for the first time you get to certain milestones on a each server. The expansion content you have to pay for usually becomes earn-able in game after 6 months. I can't name another game that lets you earn infinite premium currency. You can BUY astral shard with store points. Eberron was the second, or third most popular setting in DnD at the time of development. Forgotten realms was the most popular at the time, but the default was Greyhawk. I THINK Eberron was more popular than greyhawk as a named setting at the time, but most people just played in "the DnD world" which would be Greyhawk. Since this came out around the same time as Neverwinter Nights 2 that probably limited their choices to Eberron, or Greyhawk. You didn't mention that 99% of the game takes place after reincarnation where you reset to lvl 1 and play again making all your choices over. The first life is twice as fast, but slightly less powerful.

[@MarleMMO]

Thank you for the thoughtful comments! Yes, many of the details you provided have been mentioned before and I've corrected in my pinned comment. Is DDO your main MMO? 🥰

[@TGAPOO]

@@MarleMMO More like only atm. Used to play CoH but that... died. Played Ragnarok on free servers once upon a time, but I haven't touched it in... 10 years. Now I feel old.

[@MarleMMO]

Have you played CoH's private server? 🥰

[@TGAPOO]

@@MarleMMO I tried, but my CoH buddies work different hours, moved on, or worst passed away. Feels wrong to play without them.

[@MarleMMO]

I respect that - I'm happy you're enjoying DDO! 🥰

[@kokocaptainqc]

17:50 removing content?? each time they tried that on LOTRO they had masive backlash from the community so they were forced to put it back.....LOTRO is middle-earth under game format....people needing help STILL needs help even if theres another path...their problems dont magically disappear

[@MarleMMO]

Hm, sorry, I did not imply that content should be removed; also, I am not sure if SSG ever tried removing content from DDO. But yes, I think refactoring older content (with the spirit of the original) is still best, or at least adding an optional alternative. 💖

[@catherinemorgan2741]

When you make money on your character in game, you can buy new items in auction

[@MarleMMO]

I.e., the auction house? 💖

[@kokocaptainqc]

.....yep.....and pressing W lets you run...

[@zethandrews3860]

Of course LOTRO looks like DDO, because it's built using DDO's engine and disign. After all DDO came first and LOTRO Utilizes what they did right and attempts to fix what they did wrong... that's part of why LOTRO is more popular. Also The free content will soon end so you have till this next friday to get it by redeeming the code DUNGEONCRAWL in the DDO store.

[@MarleMMO]

💖💖💖